If you read the book of Ezekiel, you may conclude that everything God asked of Ezekiel was an unusual assignment. But, I think the assignments we will talk about today are hard for us to comprehend. There were four signs that God requested of Ezekiel to give to his people. This request came approximately six years before Jerusalem was totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, or three years before the siege occurred. During the siege, there was a severe famine within the city (2Ki 25:30). God wanted the people to understand how bad things would be. The signs Ezekiel were to portray are as follows.

Ezekiel was to draw the city of Jerusalem on a block of clay and lay siege against it to demonstrate what Nebuchadnezzar would do to the city (Ek 4:1-3). Think about it. How bizarre would it be to see a grown man taking little soldiers, archers, and catapults and pretending he is making war against a drawing of Jerusalem, your home town. That would likely draw attention, don’t you think? And make people mad. After all, he is saying your beloved capital is going to fall when all the other prophets are saying their king Zedekiah would have ultimate victory over Nebuchadnezzar. After all, the Jews were God’s chosen people. Surely, he would not let Jerusalem, the place of his Name, go to complete ruin.

Next, Ezekiel took it a step further. While he was doing his simulation of the siege against Jerusalem, he was to lie on his left side daily for 390 days to represent the years (a day for each year) Israel had been living in rebellion against God. This would represent the time in Israel’s history from when the judges ruled Israel to the time Israel was taken captive by Assyria. After that, he was then lie on his right side for 40 more days to represent the time (again, a day for a year) Judah had been living in rebellion against God (Ek 4:4-8). This time may represent the reign of Manasseh, who God had stated was one of the most wicked kings who lead Judah into many sinful practices (2Ki 21:9-27). Think how long this is—over a year! Imagine seeing Ezekiel day after day after day doing this. I’m sure many asked why he was doing this. You would either just chalk him up to being crazy, or you would start to wonder if his message was true. I’m sure most did the former.

It didn’t end there. Ezekiel was to take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, put them in a storage jar, and use them to make bread. That doesn’t sound so bad, right? Well, get this: he could use only eight ounces per day to make bread and drink on a little over a pint of water each day (Ek 4:9-13). On top of this, the bread was to be cooked using cow dung! I’m sure this got a lot of stares and a lot of ‘yuk’s. This was definitely not kosher. And that was the point. Conditions would get so bad in Jerusalem that people would do anything, and eat anything, to stay alive for as long as possible. Ezekiel was probably lucky the paddy wagon didn’t come for him, or whatever was the equivalent in his day.

Believe it or not, there’s more! Next, Ezekiel was to demonstrate the humiliation and hardships of those who would be left in Jerusalem by shaving his head and beard. Everyone would have found this to be very odd behavior. Men just did not do that in his day and age—especially if they were priests, which Ezekiel was. He didn’t just shave his head and beard, but then divided the hair into three equal portions. One-third he burned in the fire (to represent the disease and plagues which would sweep the land), one-third he further cut with a knife (to represent those who would be slain with the sword), and one-third he threw into the wind (to represent those who would flee in all directions but be destroyed). A few hairs were left on Ezekiel’s clothes. These hairs represented the few who would be spared but would still endure hardship (Ek 5:1-4).

These are strange things. Some say these are two strange to even believe. Yet, God stated these people were very stubborn, so he had to get their attention. Strange tends to do that. For some reason, even though Ezekiel’s audience were already in captivity, they still did not believe their famous, and precious, city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. Ezekiel was trying to get them to see that their turning away from God was the cause, and it would definitely happen. Yet, are we any different today? The Bible tells our future and the direction we are headed. We can either be on his side or not. What happens to us and our country depends on where we ultimately stand. Will we heed Ezekiel?

Some may see these differences like the comparison: all robins are birds but not all birds are robins. Therefore, Jews are Israelites who are Hebrews. However, it is a little more complicated.

Hebrews. First of all, who are the Hebrews? They are descendants of Eber (Gn 10:21-25). Eber was a descendent of Shem (Shem → Arphaxad → Shelah → Eber). Remember, Shem was one of three sons of Noah (the other two being Japheth and Ham) who survived the flood. Eber had two sons: Peleg and Joktan. We later learn that Abraham was a descendent of Peleg and was known as a Hebrew (Gn 14:13). It is likely that Job was one of these descendants (Jobab, Gn 10:29). All of the sons of Eber were Hebrews. So, what about Joktan’s descendants?

It seems that ever since Noah and his sons exited the ark on Mt. Ararat (today in modern Turkey), they began to migrate and settle eastward as their population began to grow. We know that the descendants of Peleg settled in the area today known as Iran since this is the area from which Abraham came (i.e., city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia; Gn 11:27-30). However, it seems that those of Joktan continued to move eastward (Gn 10:30). Therefore, some have proposed that the Joktan Hebrews are the ancient descendants of the Orient. We know that after God caused the people to possess different languages due to the sin of Nimrod building the tower of Babel in the plain of Shinar (later known as Babylon), these other descendants of Noah then began to scatter to other parts of the world. The descendants of Ham went west and also south into Africa, the descendants of Japheth went toward the north and west into Europe and the descendants of Shem remained in the general geographic region. Therefore, this could be why most of the world has a common language ancestry and not tied to the oriental languages as the descendants of Joktan would likely not have been affected since they were not disobedient to God’s message to spread throughout the world (Gn 9:1). This would then imply that most of those in the Middle East and Orient are common in that they are all of Hebrew descent. That would also explain why Abraham was noted as a Hebrew after he entered the land of Canaan. Most of the indigenous people of that geography were descendants of Ham and not of Shem (Eber was the largest group of descendants of Shem).

Four Quarters of Old City Jerusalem

Israelites. The Israelites then are a small subgroup of Hebrews. They are descendants of Abraham (Abraham → Isaac →Jacob [name later changed to Israel]). Israel had twelve sons and these became known as the 12 tribes of Israel and were whom God chose to work through as a nation to reveal Himself to the world (Ex 19:6). However, we also need to remember that Israel as a nation became split when Rehoboam became king (1Ki 12:16-17). The Southern Kingdom, composed of Judah and Benjamin, became known as Judah with Jerusalem remaining as its capital. The Northern Kingdom, composed of the other 10 tribes, became known as Israel with Samaria as its capital. None of the kings of Israel were considered good or righteous. Because of their sin, they were eventually, as prophesied by many of God’s prophets, taken into captivity by Assyria. However, it has been shown that prior to that time many of the Israelites left to other areas with a large number migrating to what later became known as Armenia. We only have to look at the old city of Jerusalem today to see the connection. The old city portion of Jerusalem today is divided into four quadrants: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Armenian. Therefore, there is still an Israelite connection to Jerusalem today.

Jews. The term Jew is an abbreviated form of Judah, one of the tribes of Israel and the name of the Southern Kingdom as mentioned earlier. There were some of its kings that were considered righteous but others were considered wicked and their wickedness was the main reason for Judah also being taken into captivity, but this time by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. However, when Babylon was captured by the Medes and Persians, King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return and rebuild Jerusalem (Er 1:1-2). From that time to 70 AD, Jerusalem, its temple and the land was re-established. After the Romans destroyed its temple in 70 AD, the nation went through many conquests and the people displaced. Even today there are more Jews outside Israel and in Israel. It was not until 1948 that the nation was re-established and recognized. Therefore, most of Israel today is composed of Jews but those with an Armenian connection are likely of Israelite descent. Although many today may not be able to trace their ancestry to a specific tribe, it may be that all are represented in some form.